Comments on: How to use Outlook

By: Brian Blanchard

Brian Blanchard — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:05:35 +0000

Of course there is another way to deal with any inbox be it paperwork or e-mail. As the theory goes, leave it in the inbox and if it is important someone will ring you.

mmmmm not sure that would work with a tax demand!

By: Brian Blanchard

Brian Blanchard — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:03:56 +0000

Nothing bad about being tidy with e-mail ….. I find it is the only way to cope. I have an archive file and lots of folders in it so that I can find things and I keep this open with Outlook. When this archive gets to 1GB I cut out all old stuff into another archive. It is easy with the Options menu to add/remove PST files or Archives when you need to access old stuff. I tend to file archives by year so I have a good idea where an old e-mail will be. I use Express for other e-mail accounts and personal stuff and that does not easily allow archiving like Outlook.

I cannot image working with lots of e-mail in the inbox ….I too use the inbox as a to do list and my send box to make sure I have got a reply to any questions or requests for action I send by e-mail.

By: Gavin Moorhouse

Gavin Moorhouse — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:43:18 +0000

I agree with Tim. My inbox only ever has a few emails and these are retained because I have a task to complete in relation to them. I have recently moved over to Outlook 2007 and I have to say it is a fantastic product. I have looked at the other free products out there but they simply don’t make the grade. Also from a technical support perspective it makes sense to be using Outlook.

My Windows desktop is also clear, apart from shortcuts. The amount of people I see using the desktop as their ‘file server’ is incredible, I do my best to educate these people not to use the desktop as a storage area. If that doesn’t work then Group Policy comes into play!!

My desk is also generally tidy, but sometimes after a few busy days it does then become a mess and at this point I assign sometime to get it tidy again.

Tidy desk / inbox / desktop, tidy mind…………………………

By: James

James — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:37:06 +0000

I live by Outlook’s Categories. As soon as a mail comes in I assign it a Category. I try to adopt the deal with it there and then approach, but sometimes that just isn’t possible with deadlines.

Categories can be likened to Gmail’s Labels or “Web 2.0″ websites tagging mechanisms in that you can assign multiple Categories to a single Outlook item–that’s right, Notes, Tasks, Calendar, anything. As a consequence I have very few folders.

A perfect example is if I’m working for a client but dealing with multiple contacts I can just group them by assigning their e-mails with a Category which is the same name as their company. This helps with lumping in supplier e-mails that are related to the company I’m dealing with. My inbox currently has 303 items believe it or not, but grouped by Category. A simple right-click give collapse all or expand all access and if viewing with the Preview Pane on the right Outlook 2003 automatically converts the message list to two-line view with a column called Arrange By: – a simple left-click on that brings a drop-down list of which I’m frequently switching between grouping by Categories or Date.

This also makes searching less required and certainly faster.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:08:31 +0000

I agree, Steve. It’s one of the reasons why the book is worth a read.

By: Fr3d

Fr3d — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:49:41 +0000

I use NEO Pro (an add-in for Outlook: http://www.caelo.com/) at work – and as a result, I have an empty Inbox (well, it’s called Active mail) over 90% of the time. (This does take a little while to configure though). At home, I use Outlook w/o NEO, and… it’s a mess.

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:47:39 +0000

(something that takes 3 years to code might include the GTD mantra but evidently, didn’t benefit from it…!)

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:52:19 +0000

I don’t think it’s that unusual, Tim. You might find “Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity” (GTD) an interesting read. It’s all about dealing with things as soon as they arrive, even if it’s just filing them somewhere, so that they don’t get in the way of what you’re currently doing/thinking about. My partner swears by it.

Chandler – the open source PIM that was written about in “Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software” (another good read, btw) – is somewhat based on the principles of GTD.

By: David Wright

David Wright — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:04:35 +0000

My desk at home is a complete mess, the one at work isn’t 100% tidy, but we have a semi-clear desk policy, so it doesn’t get too bad.

My Windows desktop has the trash can on it, that’s it.

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:31:07 +0000

Oh there’s a good article here… Personally I maximise my “wilfully perverse” score by running Lotus Notes. On a Mac. This stops email bores dead in their tracks, mainly because I also use the OpenNTF mail template – in Notes, mail is just another neatly customisable database. There are loads of methodologies out there for “being tidy” with emails, and some of them actually end up as custom mail front-ends, in Notes or elsewhere. GTD is now practically on a par with Tom Cruise’s favourite religion; there’s another thing called 43Things (I think, I’m one of those people who can’t remember numbers like that: it might be 38 things)…

While lots of Notes wonks use agents to sort their mails into folders on arrival (because Notes jumps to the next unread message, across folders, by the Tab key), I cheat a bit, and use the free-text search every few weeks to grab the mails from particular people, do a select all, and throw them into a folder. This means my inbox stays fairly tidy, but more importantly, it ends up containing only the weird mails that don’t yet have a folder… which eventually irritates me enough that I make a folder for them.

There was a rather fab smart mail template for Notes called Bifrost soemthing-or-other done as an academic exercise, but sadly the uthors don’t seem to have left it anywhere findable.

(oh, and my desks – I have four, basically – are all identical. Not an inch of actual wood or glass is visible…